The out on the job one is interesting. I'd never really given the subject much thought. Its a bit odd to think that this was a legitimate issue back then, but today if someone made an effort to hide their sexual preference while searching for a job I would chalk it up to lack of confidence or paranoia.

Growing up in the 90's sort of gives you a weird perspective on this sort of stuff. You're too young to fully understand the idea of someone being completely held back by their sexual orientation, so you never give it that much thought, but you're old enough to remember that where the modern gay rights issues are about being treated equally the older ones were just asking not get beat up walking down the street, so you don't give it so little thought you can use the word fag as a generic, casual insult.

DarkView wrote:Its a bit odd to think that this was a legitimate issue back then, but today if someone made an effort to hide their sexual preference while searching for a job I would chalk it up to lack of confidence or paranoia.

At least where I live, life is incredibly better in this sense than it used to be (other than missing the fun of being a secret member of a taboo group).

As I interact on some conservative blogs, I do still encounter some of the old "don't shove your orientation down our throats" stuff -- but I think that's a dying issue. Literally -- once another generation or two of oldsters dies off, that's just gonna disappear from the topic list.

On the other hand, more widespread is the idea that atheists are amoral beings who believe "anything goes" if they can get away with it, and atheists are now the most distrusted minority.

So it seems I'm never quite out of the thick of it!

but you're old enough to remember that where the modern gay rights issues are about being treated equally the older ones were just asking not get beat up walking down the street

And, of course, there are those who feel that now that they aren't beating us up, we're being treated equal, right?

Um, no, but we're getting there. Once the marriage issue is resolved, hopefully the gay rights movement in the US can mostly start to dissipate, and whatever remains will be politically neutral.

Unfortunately, as we see with feminist movements today, once an interest group succeeds with their initial agenda, what tends to happen is that while most people go back to their lives, the rest sit around and start generating more and more extreme politics and demands, and anyone not on their political agenda no longer belongs to "the group", even if they are a woman, or gay or whatever.

The proper response would be to become tolerant of a diversity of political views and embrace and accept the success that has led to that diversity...but it's not what happens, alas.